


soft epilogue

by foryoo



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: 3mix, Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, i love jeongmi okay, jeongyeon is an idol, mina is a doctor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 18:49:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17493320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foryoo/pseuds/foryoo
Summary: and when jeongyeon wakes up to the distant humming of the metro train, the low buzzing of summer crickets and the fiery gold sunset fading to twilight, still sleeping beneath quilted blankets that mina had knitted for her once upon a time,jeongyeon thinks, ‘this is enough.’‘this is what love is.’





	soft epilogue

_i think we deserve_  
_a soft epilogue, my love._  
_we are good people_  
_and we’ve suffered enough._

 

 

the bedroom door creaks open, creating a pillar of light that dawns over jeongyeon’s sleeping face, rousing her from her deep slumber.

she curses at the harsh light that almost blinds her, glaring at the nightstand, examining the digital clock, which reads  _3:30_  am in bright, neon red—still too early for her to remove herself from the soft comforts of the blanket, still too early for the morning to come.

the door closes, and the night envelops her once more.

she hears the sound of bare feet padding softly against the wooden tiles — there's a sudden dip of weight beside her, which is not how it’s supposed to be.

jeongyeon waits for the soft flesh of mina’s lips against her forehead, but there is only silence.

"mina?" jeongyeon calls out, uncertain.

"jeong," mina responds quietly, and jeongyeon almost doesn't hear her voice. "sorry i woke you up."

jeongyeon rubs the sleep from her eyes, tries to stifle a yawn, but fails. "never mind that. how was work?"

a wistful look adorns mina’s face. "exhausting."

in the darkness, she searches for mina, thumping the mattress in every direction until she grasps her hand.

jeongyeon traces the lines mapping her palm, her fingers against mina’s. "are you alright?"

"i—" mina pauses, lips pressed to a thin line, and begins again. “aren’t you tired, jeong?"

_aren’t you tired of sleeping beside empty spaces?_

(except jeongyeon learned how to sleep beside empty spaces with only the cold, moonlit room to accompany her, after mina comes home at three in the morning, the scent of disinfectant and dried blood clinging to her skin, with stethoscope and white coat still draped over her shoulders,

and tells her to stop sleeping on the couch because “it’d be bad for your back, silly. you’re an idol, jeongyeon. take care of yourself more.” mina says, weaving her fingers through jeongyeon’s soft blonde hair.

jeongyeon so desperately wants to tell her the same—“i’m not the one working ‘till early morning, why don’t you take care of yourself? why won’t you let  _me_  take care of  _you_?”—but when she sees mina’s eyes blossoming with tenderness that she knows all too well, she almost forgets the silver knives piercing the valley of her ribcage, how they’re always thousands and thousands of oceans apart.

_almost.)_

instead, she feigns ignorance. "how could i possibly be tired when i was just sleeping?”

mina pulls back her hand from her grasp. “you know what i mean.”

“mina, we’ve talked about this already—”

"i know that!" mina snaps and mumbles an apology quickly before swallowing the thick lump lodged in her throat, voice wavering from the heaviness of her heart, from the guilt that eats her alive until she is nothing more than devoured flesh. "y-you don't deserve this kind of relationship. i’m barely at h-home, we haven’t had a proper meal together for weeks now, a-and i just—i just can’t do this to you anymore, jeongyeon.”

(jeongyeon learns that she is no stranger to bitterness.

she knows of this after she can no longer count the days of mina’s absence, promises withering away under the heavy silence at the empty dinner table, and sometimes her heart becomes monstrous: full of rage and frustration and despair for the relationship that can hardly be called one when mina was never around for late night movies that jeongyeon had planned for weeks, or when she looks at the audience, always hopeful to catch a glimpse of mina’s windswept hair or the sound of her voice turned raw from screaming her name and then sees nothing of her in the sea of people, jeongyeon laughs at herself for even thinking mina would ever come.

jeongyeon hits the high notes from “one in a million” with more feelings than usual.

jihyo doesn’t ask why her eyes are pooling with tears.)

there's a moment of silence before she invites mina to her arms. “come here.”

mina obliges, placing her head on jeongyeon’s shouders, while the latter brushes her hair with smooth, long strokes of her hand. “do you remember that time when i visited you at the hospital?”

“yeah,” mina replies, “a huge car accident happened at that time, too.”

jeongyeon tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “i saw nayeon that day outside the emergency room—she was getting her old knee injury checked, i think—and i greeted her, except she was staring so hard at something and wouldn’t even look at me. i was about to smack her in the head but then she just goes,  _‘mina is pretty amazing, huh, jeong?_ ’”

“and then i looked over to wherever she’s staring, thinking ‘ _i already know that, what are you going on about now?_ ’ but when i saw you, fuck—she was right.”

jeongyeon slides her arms down to mina’s waist, pulling her closer, if possible. “it was like something out of a medical drama series, honestly. while the rest of the hospital staff was in complete chaos over the accident, you—i still get chills remembering it—were so unbelievably calm, giving out orders to nurses and doctors while saving a dying patient.”

“i realized then that i could never take you away from there,” jeongyeon closes her eyes and remembers the blood in mina’s hands, the heavy breathing of the man, the constant drip of the i.v. bag. “people need you, mina. so, don’t worry about me. i’ll always wait for you.”

(eventually, jeongyeon learns to accept that some part of mina will never be hers, that half of her will always be worrying about the patient in the second-floor suffering from an illness that she does not know of, or perhaps about the next surgery that will take over sixteen hours to finish.

instead, she learns to cherish the occasional lazy sunday afternoon naps she has with mina, the only time when the world is soft and undemanding.

and when jeongyeon wakes up to the distant humming of the metro train, the low buzzing of summer crickets and the fiery gold sunset fading to twilight, still sleeping beneath quilted blankets that mina had knitted for her once upon a time,

jeongyeon thinks, _‘this is enough.’_

‘ _this is what love is_.’)

“just promise me that you’ll take care of yourself, okay? remember to eat your meals and rest when you can.”

mina chuckles at her words. “yes, _mom_. i will.”

“stop calling me that.” she attempts to keep the frown on her face, but it’s impossible when she sees mina laughing.

(and it’s been ages since she’s seen the lovely stars on mina’s face—)

“...thank you, jeong.” mina whispers, burying her face on her girlfriend’s chest.

jeongyeon reaches for the same quilted blanket and pulls it closer to mina just as she lets out a small yawn, eyes half-lidded until sleep finally comes.

“the only thing that matters right now is that you’re right here—  


_—with me.”_


End file.
